(I) Field of the Invention
This invention relates to a gas distribution system which employs either header boxes or manifold systems having holes.
(II) Prior Art
In CO boilers (carbon monoxide boilers) employing fluidized limestone to capture sulfur oxides, there is a need to remove spent limestone which has become sulfated. Since the sulfated limestone, when it leaves a CO boiler, often reaches temperatures as high as 1500.degree. F., it is necessary to cool such fluidized limestone to temperatures on the order of 350.degree. F. so that the cooled solids may be transported and handled by conventional conveyor systems, such as sold by Dynamic Air, St. Paul, Minn. An example of a limestone fluid bed boiler known in the art would be one sold by Foster-Wheeler Corporation, Livingston, N.J. An example of a waste bed cooler to reduce the temperature of spent limestone (calcium oxide, managenese oxide, and other materials that are employed in such CO boilers) is one sold by Procedyne Corp., Box 1286, New Brunswick, N.J. The CO boiler, the conveyor and the waste bed cooler per se are not a part of this invention.
One problem of commercially available waste bed coolers for solids is that the air distribution system employed to maintain a fluidized bed of solid particles therein over a period of time tends to become plugged. Efforts to lessen or avoid such plugging, which were tried unsuccessfully, included: filtering the air used in the distribution system; shaving one or more portions of bolts that are inserted through air distribution holes (to be discussed in more detail hereinafter); and varying the air distribution rate to different sections of the fluidized bed; and supplementing the fluidizing medium through distribution pipes so as to permit a lessening of the overall flow rate through the distribution plate holes. While all of these methods to some degree lessened the frequency of plugging, they failed to eliminate it for more than about three months at a time.